Emile Durkheim: Sociologist of Modernity

Often described as the father of sociology , Emile Durkheim ranks among the most important and influential figures in modern social thought. This volume captures the enduring value and importance of Durkheimian sociology, focusing on the diverse points of view theoretical, substantive, methodological, and even normative which it uses to analyze modern life. The book includes selections from Durkheim s best–known writings as well as less widely–known texts that explore the themes of modern sociology.

This comprehensive volume ranges across the entire spectrum of sociological inquiry, as seen by Durkheim. It also includes secondary readings by social thinkers of today, connecting the classic writings of Durkheim to contemporary issues. A thorough introductory essay by a leading Durkheim scholar, as well as his first–rate organization of material, makes this the definitive collection by and about Durkheim and his work.

Introduction.

Emile Durkheim: Sociologist of Modernity.

Mustafa Emirbayer.

Part I: Sociological Methodology:.

1. An Agenda for Sociology.

Introduction.

Durkheim Selections:.

Suicide.

Modern Selections:.

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste.

Pierre Bourdieu.

Part II: A Topography of Modernity.

2. Social Structure and Collective Consciousness.

Introduction.

Durkheim Selections:.

The Division of Labor in Society.

On Institutional Analysis.

Modern Selections:.

Open Schools Open Society?.

Basil Bernstein.

3. Culture and Symbolic Classification.

Introduction.

Durkheim Selections:.

The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

Primitive Classification.

Sociology and Philosophy.

Modern Selections.

The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France.

Marc Block.

The Savage Mind.

Levi Strauss.

Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo.

Mary Douglas.

Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance.

Kai Erikson.

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.

Michel Foucault.

4. Collection Emotions and Ritual Process.

Introduction.

Durkheim Selections:.

The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

Essays on Morals and Education.

Modern Selections:.

The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti–Structure.

Victor Turner.

On Face–Work.

Erving Goffman.

The Nature of Deference and Demeanor.

Erving Goffman.

Stratification, Emotional Energy, and Transient Emotions.

Randall Collins.

Historical Events as Transformations of Structures: Inventing Revolution at the Bastille.

William H. Sewell, Jr.

5. Individual and Collective Agency.

Introduction.

Durkheim Selections:.

The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

The Evolution of Educational Thought.

Modern Selections:.

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste.

Pierre Bourdieu.

Culture and Political Crisis: Watergate and Durkheimian Sociology.

Jeffrey C. Alexander.

Part III: The Institutional Order of Modern Societies.

Introduction.

6. The Modern State.

Durkheim Selections:.

The Division of Labor in Society.

On Institutional Analysis.

Professional Ethics and Civic Morals.

Modern Selections:.

Selections from the Prison Notebooks.

Antonio Gramsci.

Civil Religion in America.

Robert Bellah.

7. The Modern Economy.

Introduction.

Durkheim Selections:.

The Division of Labor in Society.

Socialism and Saint–Simon.

The Division of Labor in Society.

Modern Selections:.

The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia.

James C. Scott.

The Moral Dimension: Toward a New Economics.

Amitai Etzioni.

8. Civil Society (1): Occupational Groups and Family.

Introduction.

Durkheim Selections:.

Suicide.

The Division of Labor in Society.

On Institutional Analysis.

Modern Selections:.

To Empower People: From State to Civil Society.

Peter L. Berger and Richard John Neuhaus.

9. Civil Society (2): Education.

Introduction.

Durkheim Selections:.

Education and Sociology.

Moral Education.

The Evolution of Educational Thought.

Modern Selections:.

The School Class as a Social System: Some of Its Functions in American Society.

Talcott Parsons.

Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom: bell hooks.

Part IV: Morality and Modernity.

10. Individuality and Autonomy.

Introduction.

Durkheim Selections:.

The Division of Labor in Society.

Suicide.

Moral Education.

Sociology and Philosophy.

On Morality and Society.

Modern Selections:.

The Nature of Deference and Demeanor.

Erving Goffman.

Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children.

Viviana Zelizer.

Appendix: Dourheim′s Methodological Manifesto:.

The Rules of Sociological Method.

Emile Durkheim.

Mustafa Emirbayer is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has written widely on Durkheim and on classical and contemporary social theory.

"Durkheim was the most deliberate and the most penetrating theorist among the classical sociologists. Emirbayer s judicious selection of texts, matched with contemporary selections from among the best of modern sociology, shows how central Durkheimian themes have been in the increasing sophistication of sociological ideas through the end of the twentieth century, and beyond." Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania